i was once at the srl compound when the above machine was demo'ed. very ingeneous design! it used an s-shaped loader for the projectiles that seemed to have been salvaged from a soda machine, and fired beer cans filled with concrete that were cupped at one end to maximize the force of the commpressed air that was used as the propellent.

if i remember correctly, the control system and cameras (2 of them, it had stereoscopic vision!) was linked to an d/a converter and capture card, respectivly, on a linux box, which was in turn connected to a java app that did the video and control for the robot. the people controlling the robot that day were in germany. anyway, they had a bunch of random objects set up as targets and, when fired, the cannon would shoot the soda cans *through* the target, *through* the wooden (heavy) backdrop and hit metal objects behind in the junkyard

One of their devices is called The Hand O God. It is made of five telescoping tubes set into a perpendicular ridge of "knuckles" that supply power, all mounted on a wheeled chassis. When triggered, the "fingers" spring forward some short distance much like a kung fu finger strike, except that these fingers are four feet long and will crumple a car.

I must respectfully disagree that SRL machines are "enormously complex". Some are, but others like the PulseJets and the Shockwave Cannon are fairly simple. I think it would be more accurate to say they are enormously loud.

The SRL Ultraviolence event planned for Phoenix is now indefinitely postponed. Work is continuing to locate a setting outside of the city of Phoenix. This show may still happen in the Phoenix area but the date is uncertain. SRL regrets any inconvenience this may have caused those hoping to see some real machine mayhem.